Outreach to open projects

[monneyboi]

Summary

Create a marketing plan focused on connecting with other open projects and building community awareness.

Requirements

• Identify open projects that align with EveryPolitician's mission
• Reach out for feedback and potential collaboration
• Contact Go Directory and similar organizations
• Leverage existing OpenSanctions network

Deliverables

• List of target projects/organizations for outreach
• Blog post for broader announcement (new year)
• Follow up with testers who provided earlier feedback

Notes

This is about building community connections rather than traditional marketing.

[monneyboi]

Outreach Research Findings

Research completed on potential organizations to reach out to. Here's the prioritized list with contacts and approach recommendations.

Tier 1: Essential Partners

1. mySociety

• Status: Very active (TheyWorkForYou updated Oct 2025)
• Why: They built EveryPolitician - we should reconnect as successors
• Contact: hello@mysociety.org
• Approach: Email explaining we've taken over EveryPolitician; request knowledge transfer

2. WikiProject every politician (Wikidata)

• Status: Active (39+ countries, 50+ participants)
• Why: Essential for data model alignment before submitting to Wikidata
• Key people: Tony Bowden (Peppercat), Oravrattas, Jura, Andrew Gray
• Approach: Post announcement on Wikidata talk:WikiProject every politician; register tool on Wikidata:Tools

3. GovDirectory

• Status: Very active (weekly collab hours, 30k+ contacts, 47 countries)
• Why: Same Wikidata-based approach; complements politician data with gov agency data
• Maintainers: Jan Ainali (jan@ainali.com), Albin Larsson
• Best contact: Friday Collab Hour - 15:00 CET via meet.jit.si/GovdirectoryCollabHour
• Mastodon: @govdirectory@wikis.world

4. OCCRP

• Status: Very active (Aleph Pro launched Dec 2025)
• Why: Already use OpenSanctions in Aleph - existing relationship to expand
• Contact: Ezana Ceman (Aleph Lead) - aleph@occrp.org
• Alternative: Weekly Aleph office hours (Wednesdays)

Tier 2: High Value

5. Democracy Club (UK)

• Status: Very active (14M users in 2024 UK election)
• Why: Strong mySociety ties; Wikidata property P6465 with 108k+ records
• Contact: hello@democracyclub.org.uk
• Key people: Shabira Papain (CEO), Sym Roe (CTO)

6. GIJN (Global Investigative Journalism Network)

• Status: Very active (263 orgs, 97 countries)
• Why: Already features OpenSanctions in their Toolbox articles
• Contact: Karen Martin (partnerships) - karen.martin@gijn.org
• Opportunity: GIJC25 conference Nov 20-24, 2025 in Kuala Lumpur - exhibitor/panel
• Approach: Submit "EveryPolitician revival" story to Resource Center

7. Open Knowledge Foundation

• Status: Very active (CKAN partnership Dec 2025, OGP focus)
• Why: CKAN powers data.gov, data.gov.uk; 40+ country network
• Contact: info@okfn.org, patricio.delboca@okfn.org (Tech Lead)
• Approach: Join Open Knowledge Network; explore CKAN integration

8. ParlGov

• Status: Active (ParlGov 2024 released Aug 2024, now open source)
• Why: Academic validation; Party Facts links 45k parties across datasets
• Contact: Dr. Holger Döring - doering@uni-bremen.de
• Approach: Frame as academic collaboration

Tier 3: Lower Priority

9. OpeningParliament.org

• Status: Limited - website in maintenance, network fragmented via OPeN
• Contact: glow@openparliamentnetwork.org
• Note: Better to engage via NDI or Directorio Legislativo directly

10. OpenSecrets

• Status: Active but US-only focus; faced layoffs in 2024
• Fit: Low - won't expand to global politician data
• Note: Could be useful for methodology sharing only

[monneyboi]

Additional Outreach Research - Round 2

Further research on organizations not covered in the initial round.

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High Priority Additions

1. Transparency International

• Status: Very active; new CEO Maíra Martini started Feb 2025
• Why: CEO sits on Anti-Corruption Data Collective steering committee; they don't maintain their own PEP database - would directly benefit from ours
• Contact: Matthew King (Head of Partnerships) - partnerships@transparency.org
• Research team: tihelpdesk@transparency.org
• Timing: Good - new CEO may be open to new initiatives

2. Latin American Transparency Network (Red Latinoamericana)

• Status: Very active (32 orgs across 15 countries); published 2023 ILTL index
• Why: Underserved region for politician data; network effect across Latin America
• Coordinator: Directorio Legislativo (Argentina) 2023-2025
• Key Contact: María Baron (Global Exec Director) - LinkedIn: /in/mariabaron
• Email: info@transparencialegislativa.org
• Note: María Baron chairs OGP board, co-founded OpeningParliament.org - highly connected

3. ProPublica

• Status: Very active; won 2025 Investigative Data Journalism Award
• Why: Already operate Congress API and Represent database for US politicians; understand politician data infrastructure
• Contact: collaborate@propublica.org
• Key People: Alexandra Zayas (Deputy Managing Editor), Hannah Fresques (Deputy Data Editor)
• Timing: Actively hiring Data Editor - good moment for partnerships

4. EDJNet (European Data Journalism Network)

• Status: Active but funding uncertain beyond spring 2025
• Why: Already use Wikidata extensively (Mapping Diversity project); built MEP diversity database
• Best Contact: Giorgio Comai (Data Analyst) - g@giorgiocomai.eu
• General: +39 0461 1828600 (OBC Transeuropa, Trento)
• Note: Natural technical fit - Giorgio built Wikidata integration tools

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Medium Priority Additions

5. Open States / Plural Policy

• Status: Very active; acquired by SAI360 Dec 2025
• Why: Expanding beyond US to Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Canada - shows global ambition
• Contact: support@civiceagle.com
• Key People: Damola Ogundipe (CEO), Jesse Mortenson (Head of Data)
• Note: They already reference OpenSanctions in their dataset pages - aware of us

6. Vote Smart

• Status: Active (33 years, 40k+ politicians, based at Drake University)
• Why: Deep US politician data; strong open data philosophy; API used by Google, Microsoft
• Contact: Ambur Wilkerson (Outreach Director) - awilkerson@votesmart.org
• President: Kyle Dell - via LinkedIn
• Note: US-focused only; potential for methodology sharing

7. ICIJ

• Status: Very active (Panama/Pandora Papers investigations)
• Why: Focus on PEPs and offshore finance aligns with OpenSanctions
• Contact: Visit icij.org/contact for data partnerships
• Note: Likely already aware of OpenSanctions through investigative journalism networks